Custom House ventures into tourism with first AHA! Night

NEW BEDFORD — The New Bedford Custom House took its first “baby steps” into the world of tourism Thursday night, with staff participating in their first-ever AHA! Night.

ARIEL WITTENBERG

NEW BEDFORD — The New Bedford Custom House took its first “baby steps” into the world of tourism Thursday night, with staff participating in their first-ever AHA! Night.

Built in 1834 for $31,000, the Custom House is the oldest operating custom house in the country. But the iconic white stone neoclassical building has largely been off-limits to the public, despite its location in the heart of the National Historic Park.

Now the General Services Administration, which manages all federal buildings, is hoping to change that, starting with AHA! Night. On Thursday GSA staff members greeted passersby to tell them the history and current use of the building while a slide show of interior shots of the building played on the building's front steps.

“This place is a national treasure, and the federal government built it for the public,” explained GSA Spokesman Patrick Sclafani. “We want to open it back up to the public because it really is the public's building. Tonight is just step one.”

He said the GSA hopes to one day give tours of the building.

On Thursday, that was not a possibility, Sclafani said, because the federal government is gearing up to repair parts of the building this summer, including replacing the roof and some windows.

That didn't deter Lily Goldfarb's book group from Marion from being impressed with the Custom House.

She and five friends stopped by to hear GSA Architect Elizabeth Mees explain the building's history and how it is still used by Customs and Border Patrol to this day.

“I'm amazed that it is still working and doing what it was built for,” Goldfarb said.

Goldfarb's book club is currently focusing its readings on books about New Bedford, so members decided to attend AHA! Night in an effort to learn more about the places depicted in their books.

“We're trying to do our homework, but there's always more to learn,” said member Liz Howland who said she had not known about the Custom House's current use.

In addition to discussing the building's history, Mees explained how it fit into the larger narrative of New Bedford, detailing how seamen used to come to the house to have their height measured for identification purposes before going out to sea in the 1850s.

Many of those seamen were slaves escaped from the antebellum South via the underground railroad to find work on New Bedford's whaling ships, she said.

Mees also recommended that the book club journey a few blocks up town to visit the Nathan and Polly Johnson House, where Frederick Douglass once lived.

Later, she said she feels that better integrating the Custom House into the New Bedford Historical Park is an important part of her job as a GSA employee.

“We act as a steward of some of the country's oldest artifacts,” she said. “This is an amazing place. Whenever I'm here, I know I'm walking the same streets as some of the most famous people who have ever walked. Everyone should feel that way.”